Android Marks Fourth Anniversary since Launch with 75.0% Market Share in Third Quarter, According to IDC

The Android smartphone operating system was found on three out of every
four smartphones shipped during the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12).
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC)
Worldwide
Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, total Android smartphone shipments
worldwide reached 136.0 million units, accounting for 75.0% of the 181.1
million smartphones shipped in 3Q12. The 91.5% year-over-year growth was
nearly double the overall market growth rate of 46.4%.

"Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone
market since it was launched in 2008," said Ramon
Llamas, research manager, Mobile
Phones at IDC. "In every year since then, Android has effectively
outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition. In
addition, the combination of smartphone vendors, mobile operators, and
end-users who have embraced Android has driven shipment volumes higher.
Even today, more vendors are introducing their first Android-powered
smartphones to market."

"The share decline of smartphone operating systems not named iOS since
Android's introduction isn't a coincidence," said Kevin
Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide
Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "The smartphone operating system
isn't an isolated product, it's a crucial part of a larger technology
ecosystem. Google has a thriving, multi-faceted product portfolio. Many
of its competitors, with weaker tie-ins to the mobile OS, do not. This
factor and others have led to loss of share for competitors with few
exceptions."

Mobile Operating System Highlights

Android, having topped the 100 million unit mark last quarter,
reached a new record level in a single quarter. By comparison, Android's
total volumes for the quarter were greater than the total number of
smartphones shipped in 2007, the year that Android was officially
announced. Samsung once again led all vendors in this space, but saw its
market share decline as numerous smaller vendors increased their
production.

iOS was a distant second place to Android, but was the only other
mobile operating system to amass double-digit market share for the
quarter. The late quarter launch of the iPhone 5 and lower prices on
older models prevented total shipment volumes from slipping to 3Q11
levels. But without a splashy new OS-driven feature like Siri in 2011
and FaceTime in 2010, the iPhone 5 relied on its larger, but not wider,
screen and LTE connectivity to drive growth.

BlackBerry's market share continued to sink, falling to just over
4% by the end of the quarter. With the launch of BlackBerry 10 yet to
come in 2013, BlackBerry will continue to rely on its aging BlackBerry 7
platform, and equally aging device line-up. Still, demand for BlackBerry
and its wildly popular BBM service is strong within multiple key markets
worldwide, and the number of subscribers continues to increase.

Symbian posted the largest year-on-year decline of the leading
operating systems. Nokia remains the largest vendor still supporting
Symbian, along with Japanese vendors Fujitsu, Sharp, and Sony. Each of
these vendors is in the midst of transitioning to other operating
systems and IDC believes that they will cease shipping Symbian-powered
smartphones in 2013. At the same time, the installed base of Symbian
users will continue well after the last Symbian smartphone ships.

Windows Phone marked its second anniversary with a total of just
3.6 million units shipped worldwide, fewer than the total number of
Symbian units shipped. Even with the backing of multiple smartphone
market leaders, Windows Phone has yet to make a significant dent into
Android's and iOS's collective market share. That could change in 4Q12,
when multiple Windows Phone 8 smartphones will reach the market.

Linux volume declined for the third straight quarter as did its
year-over-year growth. Samsung accounted for the majority of shipments
once again, but like most other vendors competing with Linux-powered
smartphones, most of its attention went towards Android instead. Still,
that has not deterred other vendors from experimenting, or at least
considering the open-source operating system, as multiple reports of
Firefox, Sailfish, and Tizen plan to release new Linux-based experiences
in the future.

In addition to the table above, a graphic showing the relative market
shares of the top 6 smartphone operating systems over the previous five
quarters is available at IDC.com. The chart is intended for public use
in online news articles and social media. Instructions on how to embed
this graphic can be found by viewing this
press release on IDC.com.

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